Denny Hamlin hopes to use Pocono to get back in the race

Last year's repave seemed to wipe out his advantage on the "Tricky Triangle," but Denny Hamlin is still optimistic

June 08, 2013|By Keith Groller, Of The Morning Call

LONG POND — Denny Hamlin may have been the only driver on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit not happy to see the repaved surface at Pocono Raceway last year.

Prior to the new asphalt, this had been Hamlin's hamlet.

He swept the two races in northeastern Pennsylvania in 2006, his first year on the tour, and tacked on wins in August 2009 and June 2010.

He has nine top-10s in 14 career Sprint Cup starts in Monroe County and even added two more top-10s since the Camping World Truck Series started coming to Long Pond in 2010.

If anyone had seemingly solved the "Tricky Triangle," it was Hamlin.

But just as he has his lost way in this year's points standings, the 32-year-old Hamlin has lost his edge at "Doc's Place."

The repave not only took away the track's bumps, but Hamlin's advantage.

"Anytime they put new pavement on it, everything changes," Hamlin said. "It's a whole new ballgame. The setups are no longer the same. You pretty much learn all over again. You can take all your past winners and stats out the window once the track configuration changes. And it has here at Pocono."

Hamlin has a chance to regain his Pocono edge and rekindle his "Chase for The Cup" hopes with a win Sunday in the Party in the Poconos 400. The green flag waves at 1 p.m. [TNT has the national TV broadcast].

With just 13 races until the Chase cutoff, Hamlin is 26th in points and coming off a 34-place finish at Dover where a blown tire took him out with about 20 laps to go.

His best — and maybe, only — chance of making the Chase is by winning two or three races.

The top 10 drivers in points after the first 26 races automatically make the Chase. The other two spots are considered "wild cards" and go to the two drivers who are in 11th through 20th position with the most wins. Tony Stewart set himself up as a potential wild card with his win at Dover.

Hamlin, who drives the No. 11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, has three poles, including last week at Dover, but no wins.

He missed four races with a fractured vertebrae, but has had a second-place finish at Darlington and a four-place effort in Charlotte since his return.

Some concern arose about him re-aggravating the injury during the wreck at Dover, but Hamlin said: "I felt pretty good. Actually, afterward I felt the best after that Dover race. Physically, everything was good."

He's much healthier than his position in the standings.

"This point system is tough," he said. "We're in a hole. We were edging our way and we were going to be in good shape had we not blown that tire at Dover. Now we set ourselves back to where we pretty much started again. We've done the math. We know what we have to do, but obviously know that every bad finish hurts us that much more."

Hamlin knows he has to win.

"If I get one, then it will put me in the mix," he said. "But then I'd have to leapfrog guys on points and with the bad finish that I had last week, it's going to be pretty hard to do. I'm going to have to rely on getting two wins and then barely get into the top-20 at the end."

Hamlin, who became a father for the first time in January, is maintaining a positive outlook.

"I'm optimistic," he said. "We still run really well here. I feel like the way we've been running, we can pretty much win on any given week."

Bill's back

Bill Elliott, a five-time Cup race winner at Pocono (second only to Jeff Gordon) was back in Victory Lane on Saturday after his 17-year-old son Chase won the Pocono ARCA 200.

"It's a lot different than it was my last time here," Elliott said on a visit to the media center podium. "Someone had me autograph a picture of the last time I was in Victory Lane here in 2002 and Chase was just a little guy at that time. For him to be back here in Victory Lane himself, 11 years later, is a dream come true. He did a great job."

Enough to make you weep

After a complete washout on Friday, the Sprint Cup cars finally got on the track on Saturday.

Series points leader Jimmie Johnson had the fastest time in the first practice session (speed of 175.586 mph) and was second (behind only Kurt Busch) in the second round. Busch, by the way, was third in the morning practice. Running right with them was Carl Edwards.

After his practice run at Pocono Raceway on Saturday, Tony Stewart talked about weepers cropping up on the track.

"If we could just get the weepers out of there, we would be just fine," Stewart said. "You hit them and it's worse than I remember them being as far as how it makes the car jump around. I just about lost the car twice running through the water today."

A weeper is a nasty word for tracks and track owners because weepers are places on the track where water comes up through the tracks.

The weepers at Pocono have caused delays and even a postponement or two over the years, but were supposed to be eliminated with the track repave last year.

Pocono Raceway president and CEO Brandon Igdalsky said that what Stewart called "weepers" were actually damp spots.

Igdalsky said he'd have to have a serious talk with the person in charge of the repave were they actually "weepers" on the track.

"The whole crew did a great job of getting everything dried up and ready to go," Igdalsky said.

He also praised the effectiveness of the Air Titan drying system, which removes water from surfaces much quicker than the old jet-fuel dryers. NASCAR unveiled the Air Titan at Daytona this year.

Because of Friday's steady rain, attendance for the Sprint Cup practices and the ARCA race was up over recent Saturdays on June race weekends.

Saturday crowds for the August Pocono race have been boosted since 2010 by the Pocono Mountains 125, the Camping World Truck Series event.